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Hearing Unit, State House Annex, PO 068, Trenton, New Jersey Committee Meeting of SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE “The Committee will receive testimony from invited guests on the benefits of preschool and other high-quality early education programs” LOCATION: Committee Room 6 DATE: September 21, 2015 State House Annex 10:00 a.m. Trenton, New Jersey MEMBERS OF COMMITTEE PRESENT: Senator M. Teresa Ruiz, Chair Senator Shirley K. Turner, Vice Chair Senator Peter J. Barnes III Senator Diane B. Allen Senator Michael J. Doherty ALSO PRESENT: Erin M. Basiak Anita M. Saynisch Liz Mahn Amanda von Leer Office of Legislative Services Senate Majority Senate Republican Committee Aides Committee Aide Committee Aide Meeting Recorded and Transcribed by The Office of Legislative Services, Public Information Office, Hearing Unit, State House Annex, PO 068, Trenton, New Jersey TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Ellen Wolock, Ed.D. Director Division of Early Childhood Education New Jersey Department of Education 5 Vincent J. Costanza Director Office of Primary Education, and Executive Director Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge New Jersey Department of Education 12 Cecilia Zalkind Executive Director Advocates for Children of New Jersey 26 W. Steven Barnett, Ph.D. Director National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) 35 James Abbott Police Chief Township of West Orange 45 Joshua Spaulding Deputy Director Fight Crime: Invest in Kids 50 M. Brian Maher Leadership Group Member Pre-K Our Way 50 Ruth Lopez Piatt Pre-K Provider, and Co-Owner Little Lamb Preschool-Keener Kids, Inc. 53 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Page Lynda Anderson-Towns Member Leadership Group Pre-K Our Way 57 F. Nana Ofosu-Amaah Executive Director Office of Early Childhood Newark Public Schools 61 Marie Blistan Vice President New Jersey Education Association 62 Francine Pfeffer Associate Director Government Relations New Jersey Education Association 64 Melanie Schulz Director Government Relations New Jersey Association of School Administrators 70 Rocco G. Tomazic, Ed.D. Superintendent Freehold Borough School District 71 Randee Mandelbaum Teacher Freehold Learning Center 72 Sharon Seyler Legislative Advocate New Jersey School Boards Association 76 Kiran Handa Gaudioso Senior Vice President Community Impact and Community Relations United Way of Northern New Jersey 78 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Page Kathleen Feigley President and Owner Kangaroo Kids Child Care and Learning Center 81 Lynne Strickland Executive Director Garden State Coalition of Schools 86 David G. Sciarra, Esq. Executive Director Education Law Center 88 Janellen Duffy Executive Director JerseyCAN 94 Jennifer Keyes-Maloney, Esq. Assistant Director Government Relations New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association 96 Fidelia Sturdivant Principal Wahlstrom Early Childhood Academy 97 APPENDIX: PowerPoint presentation submitted by Ellen Wolock, Ed.D. 1x PowerPoint presentation submitted by Vincent J. Costanza 14x Testimony submitted by Cecilia Zalkind 16x TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) APPENDIX (continued) Page PowerPoint presentation, plus attachment submitted by W. Steven Barnett, Ph.D. 18x Testimony, plus attachments submitted by M. Brian Maher 30x Testimony submitted by Ruth Piatt Lopez 52x Testimony submitted by Lynda Anderson-Towns 55x Testimony submitted by Marie Blistan 58x Testimony submitted by F. Nana Ofosu-Amaah 60x Testimony submitted by Rocco G. Tomazic, Ed.D. 63x Classroom drawings submitted by Randee Mandelbaum 66x Testimony submitted by Sharon Seyler 77x TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) APPENDIX (continued) Page Testimony, and pamphlet submitted by Kiran Handa Guadioso 80x Testimony submitted by Kathleen Feigley 84x Testimony submitted by Lynne Strickland 87x Testimony submitted by David G. Sciarra, Esq. 89x Testimony submitted by Janellen Duffy Testimony submitted by Jennifer Keyes-Maloney 94x Testimony submitted by Fidelia Sturdivant 98x Testimony submitted by Kathleen Nugent Hughes Democrats for Education 100x pnf: 1-105 SENATOR M. TERESA RUIZ (Chair): Good morning, everyone. I’ll kindly ask you to take your seats. Roll call. MS. SAYNISCH (Committee Aide): Senator Ruiz. SENATOR RUIZ: Here. MS. SAYNISCH: Senator Turner. SENATOR SHIRLEY K. TURNER (Vice Chair): Here. MS. SAYNISCH: Senator Barnes, substituting for Senator Beach. SENATOR BARNES: Here. MS. SAYNISCH: Senator Allen. (no response) Senator Doherty. SENATOR DOHERTY: Here. SENATOR RUIZ: (off mike) One second. Sorry, I wanted to be sure -- I didn’t have my glasses on at the right time. But we do we have a great guest joining us here today, and I want to give a warm welcome to Governor Jim Florio. (applause) In addition, joining us-- I know that one of my counterparts over on the Assembly side -- I can’t see where she is -- Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, who joins in efforts for early childhood, is here as well. (applause) And there is a group of phenomenal students who are referred to as Under the Dome -- I actually use that term quite often myself when I’m traveling down the Turnpike -- and they’re from Montclair State University. So, welcome. (applause) 1 I want to welcome everybody back. It’s interesting how we kind of start our calendar here in Trenton the same way that school starts. So for anyone who’s listening, to all our great teachers in the State of New Jersey and to all of our school children -- I wish you great academic success in the 2015-2016 school year. Having this discussion today really fills me with great excitement. I know firsthand, as a preschool teacher -- and this was pre- Abbott, and I wasn’t licensed -- but it was in a daycare setting, and I had glorious 4-year-old children and I taught them every day. It is so phenomenal to have a young man or woman come in, day one, not knowing the English language and then all of a sudden, during circle time, have them raise their hand and answer a question; that just floors you -- like this (gestures). That when I taught those children and explored different items in the curriculum -- that if I could have taught them Mandarin Chinese, they would have learned it. It was my inability to do that. When we think about the State of New Jersey, we have phenomenal programs in place, but can we make them even better? States across this nation are exploring math concepts, and there are researchers who are currently saying that preschoolers can learn more math than they are usually taught. These are brain researchers. When we think about New Jersey, we think about really good, phenomenal early childhood programs -- like those in the City of Newark that get nationally touted. We forget that there’s a lot of research behind the 0-to-3, and the development of an infant’s brain, from prenatal-- And that when we think about New Jersey, we have to stop talking about K-12, and we have to start thinking about the development of the student from 0 to 16. And that means access to high-quality prenatal care; access to 2 high-quality daycare centers; access to high-quality universal preschool programs; access to high-quality, full-day kindergarten in the entire State of New Jersey; access to high-quality public school classrooms -- and beyond, to high school, and to college, and to career readiness. We need to really start thinking creatively in ways that we haven’t thought of before. And I want to share, actually, something that comes from a report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. And we have a representative from this national organization who will be joining us later today. And it says, “The research behind these outcomes show that the early childhood period, birth to age 5, is a time of rapid brain development and that hundreds of new connections in the brain form every second. Early experiences play a large role in determining how brain connections are formed, and this wiring becomes a foundation on which all later learning is built. The stronger we create the foundation for these children, the better the investment is, and the less we will have to pay out in services.” And I know that the biggest question on everybody’s brain is-- There isn’t a lack of will in the State of New Jersey; we know that we want to expand, but we need to figure out a way to fund it. I am not naïve to that. New Jersey is creative about thinking of referendums that protect our open spaces and environments; we’ve developed corporate business taxes to keep and attract big business in the State of New Jersey. We’ve asked philanthropic funders to explore different options for programming. And what I’m saying is, we have to do all those same things for the expansion of early childhood. Explore the option of a referendum; think about a piece of legislation that diverts CBT tax for the expansion of kindergarten and early childhood programs; encourage 3 philanthropic funders to come in and make huge investments. Because we know what we do well, but we must expand it and make it greater. But yet, there’s still some low-hanging fruit that we can approach and take care of in its immediacy. The Department of Children and Families is the one that provides the licensure for our providers on the State, and yet it’s the Department of Education that oversees all of these programs. The Department of Human Services provides the funding for wraparound in our childcare centers for before- and after-care, and yet it’s the Department of Early Childhood in DOE that oversees all the programmatic dollars. I mean, there’s a huge list of central intake -- Project LAUNCH -- all these resources in different departments that should all get streamlined under the Department of Early Childhood -- and I’m looking at you guys -- in DOE so that we have a one-stop mechanism and we’re using every resource at our disposal to continue our programs.
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